Vue, the UK cinema chain, has officially launched its new UK-Ireland distribution company Vue Lumière that will specialise in UK/Irish independent films, arthouse, and foreign language film.
The move formalises the organisations distribution plans with Vue Lumière aiming to handle roughly 10-12 titles a year. This information was confirmed by Vue founder and CEO of Vue International (the parent company), Tim Richards,
According to Screen Daily, Otto Turton, the chief commercial officer, screen content at Vue, will head up Lumière, which initially will be run by the Vue screen content team. Films will be acquire in the same manner to regular distributors, with the new distributor making titles available to all UK-Ireland cinemas, including those outside of the Vue chain.
The distribution arm arrives on the back of Vue’s early distribution efforts this year. It released Paola Cortellesi’s Italian hit There’s Still Tomorrow (C’e Ancora Domani) in April, grossing £339,419. It also released family animation Bluey At The Cinema: Family Trip Collection in August, which has now passed the £1m mark.
Speaking with Screen Daily, Richards said that Vue Lumière was “in active discussions on a wide variety of films right now” and is hoping to announce acquisitions before Christmas: “We saw a gap in the market for smaller independent films. This is something we’re really excited about - we’re going to be growing the distribution side of the business in years to come,” said Richards.
Once established, Vue Lumière intends to expand beyond the UK-Ireland to other international territories where Vue International operates, with the organisation aiming to do so over the next 18 - 24 months. Vue International’s portfolio includes Vue Nethernlands, Multikino in Lithuania and Poland, CinemaxX in Germany, and The Space Cinema in Italy.
“We want to bring the best of smaller, independent, foreign-language films from the markets we are in, where we have relationships with filmmakers; to other markets that we are currently operating in,” added Richards. “We will aim to take the best of German films, Dutch films, Polish films, and bring them to other markets – as we did with C’e Ancora Domani.”
“We’re not trying to compete with existing studios and existing distributors,” concluded Richards. “We simply think there’s a gap in the market for smaller films, for foreign-language films. And we know there’s a market for those films, because of our extensive use of AI.”
